


The World Could Always Use More Heroes

by NimbleBug



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Ironman in Overwatch, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, M/M, No way back, Post-Endgame, Tony finds out what the multiverse is really like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 12:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19946344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NimbleBug/pseuds/NimbleBug
Summary: Tony closed his eyes to the soothing sound of his wife’s voice, fully expecting to die. Instead he wakes up not only in a different time, but a different universe all together.After almost a year of trying to get back home, only to come up with a collection of malfunctioned portals and a broken heart, Tony accepts his new reality.He tries to stay out of the limelight, falling back into his drunk, playboy self, secretly hoping it will lead to an early grave.Unfortunately, even drowning in an ocean of self pity Tony can’t bring himself to just stand by while innocents suffer. This brings the attention of heroes and villains alike.





	The World Could Always Use More Heroes

Chapter One   
No rest for the weary

“Tony…”

“Look at me…”

“We’re going to be okay…”

“You can rest now,”

Rest now

Rest  
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The sudden burst of light blinded his senses as it chased away the darkness that had surrounded him. A shuddering breath filled his lungs with smog filled air, forcing him to let out a ragged cough that had him rolling from his back onto his side, spitting out a mouthful of blood. His chest heaving, Tony scanned his blurry surroundings through squinted eyelids.

“Where?,” the question was left hanging after being uttered through a raspy voice. 

His left armored hand came up after a moment of his right being unresponsive, to grasp his throat. He parted his lips to try to clear his airways, which felt so scarred, as if someone had taken sandpaper to it. After spitting up another wad of blood and, probably, other bodily fluids Tony was actually able to take stock of not only his surroundings but his own body as well.

He used left hand to push himself upright, pausing a moment as the world tipped dangerously and threatened to plunge him into darkness once more. Once his back was resting against the wall behind him, Tony took a deep breath to steady himself and build up his courage before deciding to just bite the bullet. 

His brown eyes shot down to his right arm and almost instantly he was doubled over, bile rising up through his esophagus. Swallowing down the lump in his throat, only made room for heaving breaths to take it place. Eyes wide and unseeing, as the world went blurry and screeching, like that of an alarm, filled his ears seeming to increase in volume by the second until it was all he could focus on. 

Tony knew what this was, he had felt the overwhelming sense of everything closing in on him many times before. Though his panic attacks haven’t been this bad since two thousand- twelve and his near death experience through a portal that led into space. Normally he would have already been able to push these feelings down, as their frequency had made him a master of calming his mind. Looking back he decided to give himself a break, as what had become of his right arm was as far from the ‘normal’ reasons for his panic attacks as they can get. 

Even as he leaned back, the armor casing his back thumping against the wall, trying to remember all the breathing techniques to grasp some relevance of calm before his heart decided to jump out of his chest, he could still see the black lump of charred flesh in the place of his arm seared into his closed eyelids. Forcibly pushing the image away to the darkest recesses of his mind under lock and key, Tony simple sat there and breathed. 

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that, it could have ranged from a few minutes to hours before his logical mind took over and he was able to open his eyes once more. He blinked a few times to shed the lingering tears that he hadn’t even noticed were there until now. All the while trying to remember how he got here in what looked to be a back parking lot, behind a tall white building in the middle of the night with an unusable arm. 

It didn’t even take a second for everything to come back to him in a rush of memories. Thanos. The dusting. The five years. The time travel. The war. Pepper. His daughter. He had a family, an actually family that he needed to get back to. They probably thought he was dead! 

“Fr-Friday,” Tony managed to get out after his helmet encased his head, “Friday, are you there?,”

There was a terror filled heartbeat moment of silence before the feminine, slight mechanical voice of his AI greeted his ears.

“Of course, Boss, what can I do for?,”

A breath of relief left his lungs before he said, “I need a full scan of my vitals,” 

“Right away, Boss,” was all that was said before only the soft noise of windows opening on the HUD of his helmet broke the silence.

Tony wasn’t paying any attention to the graphs and charts that appeared before his vision, to engrossed in his thoughts. He was trying to figure out how he was alive at the moment. He remembered holding all six infinity stones and then actually using them to put an end to Thanos and his army. By all rights he shouldn't be sitting here with breath filling his lungs, not after what he saw the infinity stones do to the Hulk of all people. Even if he couldn’t figure it out, this was the one thing you wouldn't find him complaining about. Not when it meant he would still get to be there with his family. To spend the rest of his life with Pepper and watch Morgan grow up to be the amazing person he knew she was destined to be. 

“All scans have been finalized,” Friday’s voice broke him from his thoughts and back to his HUD, “It seems your right arm has suffered extensive-,”

“Yeah, I know about the arm,” he quickly cut her off, not ready to deal with that new aspect of his life right at this moment, “Anything else I should be aware of?,”

“Besides a few cuts and bruises, you are dehydrated and your blood sugar is low, after getting medical treatment I would recommend a healthy meal to bring those levels back to a healthy range,”

Even with how bad his arm looked at the moment, if that was all he walked away with after using the infinity stones, something that was suppose to kill any regular mortal, then he was elated. After all dehydration and low blood sugar isn’t anything new to him after those back to back nights working in his lab. Even if they had dwindled after the birth of Morgan. 

“Alright, that’s not that bad all things considering, can you get a pinpoint on our location?” 

“It seems we are still an upstate New York, boss,” Friday answered. 

“Really?,” Tony couldn’t help but ask as he looked around. It didn’t look like the place that a large scale battle of full warfare proportions just took place on. Plus, if they were still in the same place where was everyone? Even if they had thought he was dead, he’d like to think they wouldn’t have just left his body there. He knew for a fact that neither Pepper, Peter or Rhodey would allow that to happen. 

“Would you like me to scan again?,”

With a shake of his head, Tony answered, “No, no, don’t bother, it doesn’t matter, getting a hold of Pepper is more important,”

“Of course, boss,”

A picture of his wife displayed on his HUD and Tony couldn't help but let a small smile find its way onto his face. He couldn’t wait to see to the joy filled disbelief that he had defied death against all odds once again, fill her beautiful blue eyes. God, he couldn’t wait to have her in his arms again. They were definitely taking a long vacation after this, all three of them. Somewhere warm, right on the beach, maybe the Bahamas. He didn’t think it would take long to convince Pepper, not after everything they had been through. 

“I’m sorry, Boss, but it seems that there is no one register with this number in use,”

“Wait, what?,” Tony’s fantasy was ripped away as a tingle of fear creaped it's way into his chest, “Try again,”

“No luck, boss,” 

Tony could see that as the big red letters of ‘Call Failed’ was flashing before his eyes, “Try the house,” he croaked out. 

‘Call Failed’

“The company”

‘Call Failed’

“Rhodey,”

‘Call Failed’

“Peter”

‘Call Failed’

“Steve”

‘Call Failed’ 

The fear in his chest was taking form into full on terror with each message in red letters that flashed on his HUD. Something was wrong, completely and utterly wrong, Tony could feel it all the way down to his bones. This wasn’t just a simple communication error, even if cell towers were down Stark Industries had their own servers that all calls were placed threw. Short of the apocalypse, which him and the Avengers put an end to, they should still be working, he should know, he built them.

“Look up anything on Thanos,”

“On it,” Friday replied, “No results found,”

An idea was forming in his mind, an idea that he didn’t like one bit. 

“Look up The Avengers,”

Pages upon pages flew together in a blur, before Friday spoke up, “No results found,” 

An idea that had come to him while he was still researching on ways to time travel.

“Bring up a page of the latest news,” he ordered, not completely focusing on what was going on in front of him until a window was opened with a page full of text. 

It wasn’t the house that caught on fire that caught his attention, nor the armed robbery, or the protest for equal rights for omnics. No, it was the small block of letters at the top corner of the page. 

A block of letter that read ‘October 17th 2073’.

He fell limp against the wall as all the breath left his lungs at his sudden realization. There wasn’t going to be a tearful reunion with his wife and daughter, with any of his friends, nor a relaxing vacation on the beach. That’s because Pepper, Morgan, Peter, Rhodey, Steve, nor any of the other Avengers existed.

Because he wasn’t on his earth any more. 

He was in a different universe altogether.


End file.
